A Shared Destiny
by Calibans Legacy
Summary: 3077. The height of the Jihad. The tide is finally turning. The Word of Blake is finally on the back foot. A discovery in the Dieron system might turn the tide for either side. Star commander Tayna Glimour of the Rasalhauge Dominion discovers this the hard way. An alternate first contact story. Currently needs a Beta, with an aim to improve grammar and characterisation.
1. Chapter 1

Asteroid belt

Dieron system

15th of October 3077

Star commander Tayna Glimour of the Rasalhauge dominion was having a bad day. Scratch that. She was having a stravag dammed week. The entire naval engagement had descended into some sort of disgusting spheroid guerilla war, on the edge of the system.

The blakeists were honourless surats yes, but they could fight when they wanted to. The problem was the volume of empty space in-system was vast, with lots of convenient hiding spots and the Blakeists had long abandoned their admittedly limited shreds of honour with no intention of fighting an honourable engagement of any form.

The battle for the Dieron system had started so well, with 10 blakeist warships confirmed captured or destroyed in the opening days, including the suborned thera class carrier FWLS Sardis. Her aerospace star had acquitted itself well, with 2 confirmed dropship kills, a partial kill on a pocket warship and 9 aerospace kills, with no losses among her own star.

Which led to this assignment, leading a lone star of heavy OmniFighters, intent on smoking out a pocket warship hidden in the asteroid belt along the outer edge of the Dieron system. The Blakeist naval commander was good, she had to concede that to him at least. Outnumbered and out gunned, with just a single pocket warship and a point of aerospace fighters, he had fought a war of feints and retreats, drawing the vanguard of the fleet into the asteroid field and frustrating the star commodore who had been hoping for a quick victory over the dezgra scum. It was the success and her stars combat ready status, that had seen the urgent orders from the star commodore to intercept and eliminate a fleeing pocket warship.

That had been hellishly rough, the warship had the advantage of speed and greater fuel reserves compared to her star's ostrogoth fighters. In a straight chase, the warship would win, but fortunately its propulsion seemed to be damaged in some, judging from the fluctuation in the drive emissions which probably corresponded with its decision to head for the belt; either to hide for repairs or for a rendezvous with a waiting jumpship. That had necessitated a sustained burn at 6.5 gees to achieve an acceleration speed which could potentially catch the warship, with the downside of burning through a third of her fuel reserves and straining the on board medical systems.

That had been 3 days ago, now her flight were running with engines off, coasting by at the maximum safe speed for the fighter. Her trueborn body had at least allowed her to survive the gee force with minimal discomfort, but she was forced into trusting the limited autonomics built into the ostrogoth's systems during the frequent gee force induced blackouts.

The merlin class pocket warship, she was hunting, was supposedly hiding amidst the tangle of proto-planetary rubble and captured artifacts that made up the vast sprawl of the systems asteroid belt. Assuming it hadn't already fled the system.

The question she was contemplating was twofold – where was he hiding and did she have enough fuel to engage and enough oxygen make it back or would she have to turn back and face the disgrace of failure?

Disgrace at her age, meant a posting to a solahma unit and an ignoble death soon after, blood name or no blood name. The sudden burst of radio chatter jerked her out of her morbid reverie came as an unpleasant shock as her brain struggled to catch up with the unfolding events and her body sang with the thrum of pent up energy.

' _Valkyrie lead, this Valkyrie 5, confirmed contact 10,000 kilometres ahead port side, appears to be grappled to asteroid DS10030293._

' _Sensors indicate an object, approximately the right mass for our target.'_

' _Confirmed contact Valkyrie 5.'_

' _Power signature detected, heat signature matches profile.'_

' _Filthy dezgra scum'_

' _Valkyrie 9, confirm last, I repeat Valkyrie 9 confirm last transmission.'_

' _Contact commander, two striga omnifighters on our rear. Must have been hull down on an asteroid waiting.'_

' _What configuration?'_

' _Dual Infernus's commander'_

She made a snap decision, the striga's were obviously a rear guard to delay them while the warship made its escape; but they were an immediate threat who could potentially destroy them if ignored.

' _Valkyrie flight engage and destroy the striga's, watch for other unpleasant surprises.'_

' _Star commander, the warship is ungrappeling from the asteroid , do we pursue and engage?_

' _Neg, eliminate the striga's first, Valkyrie 1'_

The battle was short, sharp and brutal. The striga's out massed her fighters by 10 tons and had considerably better weapons and armour to boot. They were however outnumbered and out gunned, so died in quick succession when cornered by her own fighters, though at significant cost. 2 of her own fighters had suffered damage and valkryie 8 had to break off and limp back to the pursuit fleet for safty, trailing a microscopic plume of leaking oxygen and fuel.

The warship had however used the distraction to put on a burst of speed before vanishing behind a curiously shaped asteroid at the edge of the ostrogoths sensor range. Reforming into a cohesive formation, they closed in on the asteroid, which appeared to something other than an asteroid.

'Is that a space station

' _Confirmed star commander, the artifact appears to be an artificial habitat encasing an asteroid with a very high level of density and magnetic anomalies'_

' _Is it blakeist?'_

' _Neg commander, it appears to be star league in origin.'_

' _Quinaff?'_

' _Aff commander'_

'… _.Founders blood'_

' _commander?'_

'Valkyrie 9, decelerate and circle the habitat, maintain a minimum distance of 2000km and use your active probe. I want to know if anyone's here.'

'Valkyrie 9, confirms. Decelerating now'

The habitat was a long horizontal cylinder around 22 kilometres in width and 8 kilometres high with rounded ends that had been inset with recesses – possible docking bays – and trailing antennae. The habitat was a mottled gray in colour, with irregular indentations that could have been asteroid impacts or could easily be recessed weapons or sensor arrays in a powered down state.

An hour stretched a long time in combat, her mind absently noticed as she searched for signs of the warship and wondered what the habitat had to do with this mess. By all rights, she should have informed the fleet or at least her superiors of the find, but the signal would take hours to reach the fleet and she couldn't spare a fighter to courier the message back. Still the find alone should absolve her of any dishonour if the mission failed.

'Commander, the warship is docked to an outer airlock on the port side of the habitat and there are crew in suits crawling all over the asteroid surface.'

' _Break velocity and rendezvous with formation'_ she ordered.

' _() we have our prey defenceless and vulnerable. Weapons release is authorised on the next pass. Target the engines and any intact sensors left. I imagine the Khan will want this ship intact. Under no circumstances are you to target or in anyway fire upon or damage the habitat or you will face me in a circle of equals. Quiaff?'_

' _Aff Star commander'_ came the eager replies of young ristars desperate to take the fight to the enemy. She almost smiled at the eagerness of unbloodied youth and hoped that they at least would survive this.

The engagement was normal enough, Pilot Shad's Ostrogoth C opened at up maximum range with his 4 Lrm 15's, providing covering fire for the rest of the flight to move into range. Desultory, almost half hearted point defence fire greeted the missile barrage and most of the missiles made it through the gauntlet intact to inflict minor damage on the flank of the warship. Pilot Anami was the first to draw blood, with her paired hag 30's pumping a salvo of depleted uranium rounds into and through a medium laser emplacement that erupted in a cloud of vented oxygen and chemicals. Split seconds, later a volley of ppcs slammed into the main hanger bay, depressurising it in a flurry of ejected debris and oxygen.

Tanya cursed, as the targeting computer was glitched out for a split second by her ppcs discharge. For a second it seemed like there was a massive power source inside the habitat and her system had tried to lock on to it. Then it cleared and her missiles reported a successful lock on the warship. Her fighter shuddered as the missiles were ejected out of their launch cradles to ignite at a safe distance.

Something seemed to give inside the warship, as a plume of debris punched out of the open hanger bay, amid fluctuating energy discharges and temperature spikes. Why isn't it fighting back she wondered, inspecting the schematics with a note of unease. It seems that the ship is unoccupied or missing most of its crew. What does it have to do with the habitat and why run all the way out here, they must know they can't win; not now.

Something seemed to burst in the habitat and then it was cleanly split in 2 halves. Demolition charges her mind realised, that's why the crew had been on the outer hull in the first place. Seemingly mocking her, the merlin sluggishly turned from the station to face the harassing fighters as another power spike erupted in the middle of the debris cloud.

A third and then a fourth power spike played havoc with her sensors for precious seconds, she was aware on an abstract level of the warship begun powering up its main weapons and the way it seemed to negligently swat aside valkyrie 5 with a burst of Lrms; but all her attention was on the shape emerging from the cloud of dust and debris.

It consisted of two fifteen kilometre long curved metal arms surrounding a set of revolving, gyroscopic rings five kilometres across, that pulsed and thrummed with energetic discharges like nothing she had ever seen before. It seemed to flicker momentarily before the object disappeared behind something, something large. Her sensors went crazy, trying to pick out individual ships in the enemy fleet while running every self-diagnostic routine they had in an effort to find the malfunction.

Impossible she thought, it couldn't be. Yet it was. Somehow the word of blake had found or built a matter displacement device and used it to manoeuver a fleet right at the worst possible point. In her last moments, Tanya noticed the device activate again.

This time the device deposited the new mass of ships 10,000 kilometres away and her sensors told her the fleet was unidentifiable. The seething mass of ships was definitely comprised of warships, judging from the heat spikes and sensor emissions.

Unknown, armed and familiar with unidentified technology. Definitely either blakeists or unknowns. Aliens? Here? Now? The blakeists had noticed by now and were reorientating the majority of their fleet to face the new comers.

A burst of static and harsh and flanging erupted over the radio. Repeated 60 seconds later. Obviously a demand or message of some kind. Not in any recognisable language.

Definitely aliens then.

That was when it all went to hell.

Hello lovely readers and welcome to my attempt at a serious Battletech/Mass effect crossover. I hope you enjoy this story enough, that you leave a review about what I did right and wrong and how I can improve in future. For anyone interested I am in need of a beta reader to help improve this story.

For those of you who are interested, the links below (remove spaces) are the information pages for the Ostrogoth fighter and the Merlin class warship.

www. / wiki / Ostrogoth

wiki/ Merlin_ (Drop Ship _class)

wiki/ Striga

Glossary of Clan Terms

I am relatively sure, I covered all the terms used below, but if there are any I haven't covered the link is below.

wiki / Glossary_of_Clan_Terms

Aff

Affirmative

Bloodname

Bloodname refers to the surname of each of the 800 warriors who stood with Nicholas Kerensky during the Exodus Civil War. The right to use one of these surnames has been the ambition of every Clan warrior since the system was established. Only a maximum of 25 warriors, depending on its Bloodcount, are allowed to use any Bloodname at one time. When one of the Bloodnamed warriors dies, a special Trial, called a Trial of Bloodright, is held to determine who will assume that Bloodname. A contender must prove his Bloodname lineage, then win a series of duels against other competitors. Only Bloodnamed warriors may sit on the Clan Councils or are eligible to become a Khan or ilKhan. Bloodnames are determined matrilineally, at least after the original generation. Because a warrior can only inherit from his or her female parent, he or she only has a claim to one Bloodname.

Circle of Equals

The area in which a trial by combat takes place. The area can be anywhere from a few meters across for personal combat, or thousands of kilometres across, or even span several worlds for large scale trials. A contestant that voluntarily leaves or is forced to leave the area is considered dishonourable or weak, and is disqualified. The area can be of any shape, though it is traditionally a circle.

Clan

The Clans of BattleTech were originally descended from the self-exiled remnants of the Star League Defense Force (SLDF), who had departed the Inner Sphere after Stefan Amaris brought about the downfall of the Star League. General Aleksandr Kerensky led his forces to a hidden destination far from the Great Houses because he believed that a catastrophic war was inevitable, one that even the once mighty Star League army would be powerless to stop. After much infighting between the members of the former SLDF, Aleksandr's son, Nicholas Kerensky took command of the exiles, reorganizing them into twenty Clans of warriors leading and protecting their attendant civilian castes.

While the Inner Sphere was mired in the destructive Succession Wars, the Clans experienced a technological renaissance. When they returned to the Inner Sphere, 250 years after their ancestors' departure, the Great Houses were mostly powerless to stop the massive Clan Invasion. But after their loss at Tukayyid, internal tensions within the Clans and an alliance between the Great Houses drew the invasion to a standstill.

Dezgra

Adjective referring to the disgraced state of the subject, such as a unit that disgraced itself in battle, or a person or unit without honor.

Rasalhauge dominion

The ultimate amalgamation of the Free Rasalhague Republic and Clan Ghost Bear, the Rasalhague Dominion is a blend of the political, military and cultural styles of Inner Sphere and Clan societies.

Ristar

Shortened form of "Rising Star." This term refers to a particularly gifted warrior on his or her way to high position

Neg

Negative

Solahma

An old Clan-warrior (~30 years and older) that has not gained the rank or reputation to stay in a frontline unit. They are dispatched from their old units and concentrated in Solahma-units, where they get combat tasks deemed unworthy for frontline warriors (cannonfodder, hunting bandits...) Mechs are rare in Solahma-units and most end up as infantry, hoping they will find a way to die in honor.

Quiaff Shortened form of "Query Affirmative." Used to query the subject's agreement, but specifically with an expected affirmative answer ("Aff"). Often used rhetorically.  
Quineg Shortened form of "Query Negative." Used to query the subject's agreement, but specifically with an expected negative answer ("Neg"). Often used rhetorically.

Star League

The brainchild of Ian Cameron, the Star League was a self-policing interstellar council formed from the Terran Hegemony, the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere, and the Territorial States of the Periphery. Each of the States of the Star League was required to provide soldiers and war materiel for the mutual protection of the Star League Defense Force, but otherwise was allowed to maintain its own standing army, and even conduct (rare) small-scale wars. Though not completely stable, the relative peace, prosperity, and advanced technology of the Star League have led many to consider the Star League as the zenith of human civilization.

Stravag

A Clan epithet.


	2. Chapter 2

Please note all speech is in italics and radio transmissions are in bold with italics.

Dieron system

Mass Relay

15th of October 3077

Mass effect translations were always a bitch. Jumping halfway across the known universe via an ancient relay was a miracle of modern science, but the sensation of displacement always seemed to turn her craw and induce lovely spells of dizziness. There was a sort of irony there, she always thought – a Turian in command of an exploration force on the fringes of known space who suffered from relay sickness.

This (or similar) thought always echoed in her head, every time she had to use a mass relay or make an ftl jump. It didn't hep, that she was of average height and had excellent instincts in null gee environments. Both traits made her extremely useful in the navy, who were always looking for turian's who could fit in standard vacuum rated armour perfectly and who could move with ease in null gee environments. Visually, she wasn't much to look at, a female turian with years of scars on her face, a slightly thicker than average waist and the blue markings of Palavan adorning her face. All crammed into standard navy issue; vacuum rated armour, complete with integral air supply and detachable helmet.

Commodore Vavea Surdos, wasn't even supposed to be in command. This was a last minute mission; assembled in haste, after a STG cell had detected a supposed anomaly in the relay network operating system. The slimies thought that meant one or more relays were being activated. That either meant a primitive species who needed to be helped into the gentle embrace of the council or a pirate band who needed to be taught a lesson.

Her patrol flotilla had been the nearest significant council force in the region and as such had been ordered back to base at best possible speed to resupply and pick up the usual delegation of diplomats, linguists, scientists and spies. It didn't help that she was from Palavan itself and was considered unquestionably loyal to the hierarchy; unlike other more dubious fringe colony officers.

The fleet itself wasn't much to look at. It's core was her patrol flotilla; consisting of a single (outdated) light cruiser, a pair of destroyers, 3 frigates, a (canceled prototype) frigate-carrier hybrid, 2 corvettes and a (unarmed) reconnaissance/electronic warfare ship. In addition the council had seen fit to grant her; a (under gunned heavy cruiser) diplomatic vessel, 2 (converted cargo ships) science vessels, a single (armed transport) assault transport and a pair of civilian cargo ships which had sacrificed a quarter of their hold space to carry a single wing of fighters. In a show of generosity; they had also assigned her an (virtually unarmed destroyer) STG drone carrier, another (even older) light cruiser, a (brand new) Asari destroyer and 2 C-sec corvettes.

Yet this was all she had and right now she was willing to trade anything for a ship with a big gun and lots of armour. She wasn't fussy, it didn't matter what it was; battleship, battle cruiser or dreadnought. First contact incidents never had the best of records, even when they went right and there were no hostilities on either side.

Confirmation and status requests flooded into the bridge, as the last of the fleet translated in system and the sensors started to recover from the effects of relay translation. Her fleet had been deployed in a globe formation with the armed ships on the outside and the council ships clustered in the middle of the formation. Her flagship; the Spear of Dawn had taken position over the fleet with 2 of the corvettes in escort positions. The other light cruiser was in a similar position on the underside of the formation, with the 2 C-sec corvettes. The STG ship, the hybrid and 2 frigates protected the unarmed ships. The Asari destroyer and one of her destroyers, stood ready to engage anything coming towards them; while her remaining frigate and destroyer provided a suitable rearguard.

Right now; she was apparently the unluckiest Turian officer in modern history, judging from the sensor returns. Higher than average radiation returns. A debris field. Both signs of a recent battle which appeared to have involved possible tactical atomic usage. Such usage was barbaric in the extreme. Her fleet only carried 8 nuclear weapons – 4 on each cruiser – and they were only 50 kilotons each in yield.

' _Commodore, sensors report 27 contacts within 7 light minutes of our position. Thermal signatures among the debris, suggest possible survivors of whatever happened._

That snapped her out of her reverie. Taking an extra effort to look and sound relaxed; she began issuing orders:

' _Sensors; get me an approximate force strength and begin cataloguing the contacts. Communications; send the first contact message and order the fleet to maximum defensive posture._

 _Navigation; check our location against known records, did we translate as expected?._

 _Intelligence; I want estimates of possible capabilities and weaknesses as soon as possible._

 _Weapons and Point defence; warm up the gardian nodes and point defences, arm missiles and torpedoes, keep the main guns cold for now._

 _Electronic Warfare; record any and all signals between the unknown ships and pass them onto the council specialists._

 _Flight ops; prepare a shuttle and an appropriate escort for a possible diplomatic mission. Tell the STG to warm up one of their stealth shuttles for an eva retrieval mission. Detail one of our eva teams and a naval security detail to accompany them'._

' _ **Unknown contacts, this is the commanding officer of the Turian Hierarchy ship; Spear of Dawn. This expedition fleet and the**_ _ **sapient**_ _ **beings on board are under the protection of the Turian Hierarchy and our allies, the Citadel Council. Any hostile act committed against us or any of the ships under my protection will be considered an act of war against the hierarchy and we will respond accordingly. I repeat, any hostile act committed against us or any of the ships under my protection will be considered an act of war against the hierarchy and we will respond accordingly. Attached to this message are a set of translation protocols and an information file explaining who we are and why we are in your system. I await your reply and look forward to opening negotiations on behalf of the Hierarchy and the Council.'**_

' _Eva team reports readiness and the shuttle is ready Commodore.'_

' _They are to rendezvous with one of the thermal signatures in the debris field and attempt to recover any survivors or intact artifact, then convey anything recovered to the lead science ship for analysis and possible first contact negotiations.'_

Now it was a waiting game. The other side would decide what happened next and she had a bad feeling about something. All that could be done was to ignore the bitching of the council officials that was no doubt flooding her in-box and ensure her ships were ready for whatever came next.

' _Shuttle confirms orders and is now undocking from the secondary hanger.'_

' _Commodore, sensors report contacts are reorientating on our position. Intel has tentatively classified the largest ships as a dreadnought analogue, 2 heavy cruisers and 2 possible battle cruisers or battleships. The remaining contacts are tagged as possible frigate or destroyer type ships._

' _Repeat the message and prep the ship for combat. Ensure the rest of the fleet does the same. Do not warm up weapons or targeting systems yet. Engineering; can we jump yet?_

' _Negative commander, the civilian ships need another 10 minutes._

' _Commodore; contacts now within 3 light minutes and closing fast.'_

' _Possible weapons lock, increased thermal output and sensor emissions consistant with a state of combat alert'._

' _Raise kinetic barriers to full power, sound battle stations, gardian and point defences are weapons free at half a light year'._

' _Incoming audio transmission.'_

' _Run it through the isolated vi, see if it can start translating it. Make sure its checked for possible information warfare packages and then pass it onto the diplomats.'_

' _Missiles detected, impact in two minutes'._

' _Targeted at us?'_

' _Confirmed, previous message is repeating'_

' _ **In the name of the blessed Blake, this is your only warning. Power down any weapons systems and retreat to where ever you came from or feel the wrath of mankind's blessed protectors.'**_

' _Weapons free on the missiles; warm up the aerospace craft and power up the weapons systems. I want targeting locks on the lead enemy vessels and begin arming the nuclear weapons.'_

 _Hello lovely readers and welcome to my second chapter of this Battletech/Mass effect crossover. I hope you enjoy this story enough, that you leave a review about what I did right and wrong and how I can improve in future. For anyone interested I am in need of a beta reader to help improve grammar and characterisation._


	3. Chapter 3

Please note all speech is in italics and radio transmissions are in bold with italics.

Dieron system

Mass relay vicinity

15th of October 3077

The gardian system of the asari destroyer claimed first blood; a collapsing cloud of fire and energy, marking the demise of the first missile. The second died amid concentrated laser fire from both destroyers. The third and fourth came apart amid a desperate hail of kinetic rounds from the ships secondary point defences.

Then the enemy showed their teeth. A deluge of energy beams converged on the lead Turian destroyer, holing it repeatedly as armour blistered and vaporised under the power of the strikes. Then the mass effect blew in a burst of exotic energy and the destroyer came apart in a cloud of debris. One of the c-sec corvettes accelerated forwards, gardian lasers frantically flashing; attempting to act as a shield for the accompanying light cruiser, only to be sent into a death spin as its engines were destroyed and outer hull caved in.

The remainder of the salvo gutted the side of the Dawn's Shield, the cruisers weapons peeling away under the torrent and power fluctuations shutting down the rest of the ship. Moments later the fleets mass effect drives came online. Ships seem to stretch and blur before vanishing entirely to reappear on the edge of the asteroid field, pointing away from the relay. All except the damaged light cruiser and a corvette sheltering behind it.

A group of the enemy ships accelerated towards the damaged light cruiser either to board it or destroy it. The hidden corvette emerged from the shadow of the ship, engines pushed past every safe limit. Tearing past the lead ships, it arrowed in on the biggest enemy ship it could find; a 175 meter monstrosity that bristled with weaponry. Weapons cut loose as the corvette fired every offensive and defensive weapon it had into the scattering formation. Then it hit. Megatons of light up the void as both ships died in a single huge explosion of energy, burning out nearby sensors and leaving no trace of either warship.

The next surprise, the stunned survivors received; the quartet of 50 kiloton nuclear torpedoes slid out of their tubes and flipped over on plumes of propulsion gas. Arrowing in on the enemy fleet, each selected their own target. Recovering from their shock, point defence fire lit up the void and engines stabbed tongues of fusion flame into space. One after another, the nukes succumbed to the enemy defences. The final one, emerged from the debris clouds of its predecessors and prematurely detonated. The explosion bit into the leading edge of one ship, opening the section to vacuum and sending it into an out of control spiral with out hope of safe recovery.

Return fire shredded the stranded cruiser, as the rest of the ship looked on minutes later, the events distorted by the speed of light. Aboard the fleet, the diplomats and senior officers had come to the same conclusion; war had been declared.

The next 5 days would resemble an elaborate game of chess. Each side unwilling or unable to retreat; and unable to force a decisive engagement. Every time the unknown ships pressed to close, the council fleet would simply jump to safety. The strain began to show with every skirmish. Point defences started to run low on ammo or overheat faster as heat sinks lost efficiency. Mass effect drives took longer to charge. Missiles and torpedo usage dropped, as supplies ran low. Minor battle damage built up and a Turian frigate had to be scuttled with an unrepairable hull breach over the main engineering section. Likewise a lucky shot gutted the hanger bay of one of the hostile cruisers and a smaller ship had to be abandoned when a series of internal explosions destroyed the heat sinks connected to its main weapons.

The Council fleet had split into two; the civilian ships and the lighter ships taken refuge in the asteroid belt, with the rest of the fleet engaging in running skirmishes with the enemy warships. The enemy refused to move their dreadnought from its position in front of the relay, heavier warships protecting it from a surprise attack and the lighter cruisers hunting the fleet.

Then the fates smiled upon the Turian's. During an attack against a cruiser and its escort complement, a volley of mass accelerator rounds managed to carve a deep groove into the hull of one of the cruisers; knocking out a collection of weapons and sensors. Partially blinded on on side and missing some of its most devastating weaponry it was rip for the taking.

Taking advantage of its weakened condition, the Turian flotilla (consisting of the Spear of Dawn, the remaining destroyers and a single frigate) fell upon their prey. Long range fire from the mass accelerators hammered the lead ship hard; shattering it's weakened hull in multiple places and opening it up to the tender mercies of the uncaring void.

Anticipating a close range engagement, both sides warmed up the aerospace craft and assault shuttles at their disposal. Leading the charge was the sole frigate; engines on full and guns hurling rounds, as fast as the chambers would cycle. The destroyers followed, unleashing every last one of their missiles and torpedoes in a river of destruction. Lastly in a more sedate fashion, the Spear of Dawn followed with pinpoint accuracy as every shot struck its target.

Spinning on torches of fire, the Turian ships reorientated for another firing run as return fire batted into them. A pair of torpedoes slipped through the point defence fire to detonate deep in the belly of the frigate. Diving through the cloud of debris, the remaining trio opened fire into the rear of the heavy cruiser. Trailing in their wake, came a mass of fighters and shuttles ejected like seed pods.

A cloud of fighters boiled from the hostile ships, only to face death; as the last missiles and torpedoes fell among them. Three new suns blossomed briefly as the nuclear warheads detonated amidst the stream of enemy fighters, before the last slipped through the depleted point defences to explode inside the open hanger bay. The rear of the cruiser bulged outwards for a microsecond, then the hull broke and shattered under the fury of the nuclear sun.

The remnants of ascending fighters, met the cloud of Turian craft in a ferocious dog fight. The enemy were clearly superior in design and technology, but were heavily outnumbered and most had at least minor damage from the warhead detonations minutes earlier. Pressing the swarm of fighters backwards, created a path for the lumbering assault shuttles to slip through. Each carried a squad of hierarchy marines trained in boarding and counter boarding operations; who now trusted in the armour and defensive armament of the shuttles to keep them safe.

Precise mass accelerator rounds, punched into engines and thrusters of the enemy ships. The other warship began turning away from the fight, its engines ramping up to maximum thrust as it fell back to the safety of the main fleet.

Diving between the desperate gasps of point defence fire; the cloud of assault shuttles fell upon the pair of drifting enemy warships, furious marines eager to engage the enemy and avenge their fallen comrades. Coming to restamid the protrusion of weaponry and sensors sprouting from the hull, rigid metallic tubes connected the belly air locks with the hull plating. Laser cutters flared into life, weakening the hull plating. Breaching charges were pushed into the freshly cut depressions; the marines eager for the signal to engage.

Purity Through Fire

Interdictor class pocket warship

The charges blew in a burst of fire and the quiet corridor erupted. Smouldering melt. Sparks flying. Thick acrid smoke. Strobing lights. Lightly armoured asari-oids clad in white, running everywhere. Steady, relentless pounding of armoured feet. Rhythmic thud of pressure doors opening and closing. Sudden quiet. The smoke waned. The first Turian emerged from the breach, weapon braced and ready. Clad in dark Unity powered armour and giving off a menacing aura.

' _Breach clear.'_

Figures emerged behind him, covering each others flanks in perfect synchronisation. Soon ten armoured forms stood outwards of the breach. The thud of armoured feet stopped suddenly. The nearest pressure door opened.

The reaction was immediate. The Turian squad scrambled for cover with weapons pointed at the open door. Nothing.

' _Sargent?'_

' _Stay in cover. Deploy drones.''_

Two containers on the back of the rearmost figures slid open with a wisp of escaping air. A river of small grey spider shaped drones rushed out. Orientating themselves towards the door, the drones skittered forwards with sensors twitching for the tell tale signs of an ambush.

A crack of ionised air, marked the demise of the first drone. A fusillade of subsequent shots scythed through the ranks of the drones.

' _Optical camouflage. Smoke out'._

A pair of small grey cylinders rolled into the midst of the door. Pale grey smoke erupted from the grenades, mixing with the air and settling in the doorway. Faint shapes materialised as the adaptive camouflage tried and failed to adapt to the shifting smoke clouds.

' _Fire at will.'_

The harsh cacophony of automatic shotguns and sub machine guns shattered the silence.

' _Heavy weapons.'_

An automatic grenade launcher coughed a volley of air burst frag grenades, towards the cluster of asari-oids. A micro-missile launcher spat a fiery cloud of sub-munitions downrange. An armoured figure stumbled and fell. Picked itself up. Extended an arm towards them.

The lead Turian slumped back dead, smoking with the energy discharge. That was the signal for the rest to begin firing. A lance of luminescent energy splashed off the bulkhead behind the squad.

' _Biotics.'_

Two figures in the middle of the squad flung a pair of warps downrange. One missed and the other bit deep into the shoulder of one figure; fading to reveal a smooth crater cutting deep into the armour and exposing a hint of the flesh underneath.

' _Again. Concentrate fire.'_

Once more two warps flew downrange. The streams of weapons fire converged on the wounded figure; bullets ricocheting off the armour and explosive sub-munitions pummelled the weakened armour. Two more Turian's fell with gaping wounds burned into their heads.

Suddenly the wounded figure fell with a crash that reverberated through the corridor floor.

The fire slackened off as both sides took stock of the figure with its gaping shoulder wound, exposing the bones and internal organs that lay beneath.

As if by mutual consent; both sides begun firing back, eager to be the ones to walk out alive.

A series of quiet sizzles were lost in the thunder of combat; as the remaining recon drones dug into onto the legs of one suit and discharged their remaining power reserves directly into its inner workings. Another lance of luminescent energy took one of the biotics in the chest, leaving a charged trench through her power armour.

A burst of furious noise erupted from the head of one of the figures and it charged forwards. A blur of cyan energy threw it backwards into a control panel; which blew in a shower of sparks and debris. The other suit stopped flailing around and fell forwards, dead drones anchored to its legs. Even in death, it was deadly; with a scream, another Turian fell to the floor cradling a partly amputated arm.

The final suit had managed to extricate itself from the control panel, only to again be thrown back into an adjoining wall by the remaining biotic.

The head erupted with simultaneous explosions as concentrated fire ate through the faceplate and into the head underneath.

Silence, but for the hiss of cooling melt and the crackle of sparks from damaged equipment. The corridor was empty. The three figures were finally down at the cost of 4 marines dead and one heavily wounded.

' _Spirits, what does it take to kill these things'_ , grumbled a marine.

 _Hello lovely readers and welcome to my third chapter of this Battletech/Mass effect crossover._

 _Hopefully this battle was interesting. I tried to avoid making it to one sided as each sides tech sort of balances the others out. The end result of this battle is one heavy cruiser killed, 2 dropships destroyed, 1 damaged/scuttled and 2 captured/being captured, for the loss of 1 light cruiser, 1 destroyer, 2 frigates and 2 corvettes._

 _I hope you enjoy this story enough, that you leave a review about what I did right and wrong and how I can improve in future. For anyone interested I am in need of a beta reader to help improve grammar and characterisation._


	4. Chapter 4

Please note all speech is in italics and radio transmissions are in bold with italics.

FIRESCALD MOUNTAIN, LOST HOPE,

TERMINUS SYSTEMS

24 MAY 3090

" _ **Contact ahead, Hunter One.**_ **"** Lieutenant Kyris's musical lilt whispered over the Kodiak 2's cockpit speakers, belied the tenseness of the situation currently unfolding around Captain Yefrem Petrov. About dammed time. _**"Is it our quarry?"**_ Yefrem was more than a bit anxious; half his company was on the other side of the mountain range. They might as well have been half the world away. Needle in a fucking haystack, Yefrem thought sourly. He hoped the information they'd pulled from their last "friend" was legit this time.

" _ **Roger,"**_ came Kyris's short reply. Yefrem recognized her shift in tone; blood-lust sharpening her voice and lending it a manic edge. His stomach leaped – was this ﬁnally the end of the hunt? Throwing the throttle forward all the way, Yefrem jolted the massive Kodiak into a lumbering, forest-shaking stumble. The trees shook from his assault machine's passage. Too many times in the past weeks their quarry had eluded them.

Things would be diﬀerent today.

" _ **Confirmed,"**_ came Lieutenant Laeh'Faello vas Hastari's soft voice. _**"Taking**_ _ **intermittent**_ _ **fire from a**_ _ **Catapult and a trio of Fennec's**_ _ **."**_ A pause. _**"**_ _ **Catapult matches**_ _ **the profile."**_

Finally. Yefrem smiled but then frowned in concentration. The Kodiak rocked slightly as it lumbered through a copse of dense pine trees, but Yefrem shouldered the gnarled giants aside and crested a small rise. The valley ﬂoor lay a short distance below, straddled by the foothills of two large mountains. The forest arced oﬀ to the left, wrapping upward into the low early-morning mist. A thunderous eruption of dirt and rock snapped Yefrem's gaze to the right; he saw the Catapult in a defensive stance less than a kilometre away, belching out clouds of missiles at Hastari's Bandersnatch.

The colour scheme was scratched and faded with months of heavy combat, but still achingly familiar. Yefrem and his company had committed it to memory; it was the command mech of the 26th Armiger Legion's 1st Battlemech Regiment. He's guarding something, Yefrem realized. The Catapult hadn't moved, receiving the full onslaught of Hastari's arsenal as she lumbered steadily forward. Barely visible beyond the Mech was a downed and smoking Fennec slumped over a stand of felled trees. Two similar machines moved slowly along the tree line away from the unfolding battle. The remaining Fennec turned toward Yefrem, ﬁring its PPC's and igniting a nearby pine with the dumped heat.

" _ **Hunter Two, status."**_ Yefrem noted Kyris's location oﬀ to his left. Her Marauder was stalking the two escaping Turian 'Mechs, forcing them to move cautiously backwards. If they broke and ran the Marauder could open them up from head to waist through the paper-thin rear armour. _**"On station. Notice anything odd, One?"**_

It occurred to him as well. _"_ _ **Aﬃrmative."**_ He glanced at Hastari, who shrugged oﬀ a series of laser hits along her left torso that left it chipped and smoking along the shoulder. _**"Hunter Three, status?" "Firm. He's a determined**_ _ **bosh'tet**_ _ **."**_

" _ **Keep his attention."**_ Yefrem triggered his full weapon spread at the Fennec across the meadow. Much of it missed, exploding trees and rock closer to the Mech in a hail of blast detritus, but that was the intent. Yefrem wanted the attention on him. The responding PPC kiss that washed across his torso told him what he needed to know. _**"Hunter Two, conﬁrm**_ _ **target**_ _ **. Proceed."**_

An excited laugh was Kyris's response as the Marauder's icon shot into action. Yefrem sidestepped to his right, ﬁring weapons at both the Fenec and Catapult. Hastari's Bandersnatch shook with the impact of another Lrm volley; its right leg buckled at the knee and the Mech rattled the ground with the force of the impact. Almost immediately its was propped up on one arm, bringing weapons to bear. A haunting cry echoed off the valley sides, announcing the asari's entry into the fray. Her target tried to charge forward, but the Marauder dropped out of the sky feet first, slamming the lighter BattleMech to the ground, its left arm twisted and crushed at the shoulder. The Marauder stood, straddling it's fallen foe's torso.

" _ **Turian**_ _ **forces, stand down,"**_ Yefrem called out across a general frequency. _**"You have no further reason to ﬁght today."**_ He watched as the Catapult and Fenec twisted and levelled all their remaining weapons at his Kodiak. _**"This is**_ _ **Colonel Victus**_ _ **. I do not think you are in a position to argue. We hold the advantage."**_ Yefrem laughed heartily. _**"**_ _ **Of course Victus.**_ _ **As you can clearly see from your position"**_ — Yefrem watched the Marauder lean down and pull back its arm, the muzzles of the paired weapons black with discharge burns; to gently tap the barrels against the cockpit with a metallic clink — _**"I have you exactly where I want you. Tell your**_ _ **troops**_ _ **to stand down—or my**_ _ **troops**_ _ **will**_ _ **ventilate your cockpit**_ _ **."**_ A long weary sigh passed.

" _ **Well played,**_ _ **Captain**_ _ **My forces and I surrender."**_ Within a minute the remaining two Turian 'Mechs powered down their reactors. Yefrem sent the recall signal and a terse message to Colonel Douglass: COME PICK UP YOUR MESS.

His messages showing acknowledgements, Yefrem breathed a sigh of relief. He'd just accomplished in a week what the Triarii had failed for over two months to do. He watched as the three Turian MechWarriors exited their 'Mechs and knelt in the meadow under the shadow of his Kodiak. _"_ _Thank you_ _,_ _Colonel Victus_ _._ _You fought very well against the Triarii_ _; we hope you enjo_ _yed this years exercise._ _"_

 _I hit writers block over Christmas, so I wrote this as practise for mech combat scenes. I hope you enjoy this interlude and I hope to get back to regular updates soon. As always the Mech's can be found on Sarna .net for those who are interested._

 _I hope you enjoy this story enough, that you leave a review about what I did right and wrong and how I can improve in future. For anyone interested I am in need of a beta reader to help improve grammar and characterisation._


End file.
